The Beau's Retreat

The Beau's Retreat is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1718 in The Dancing Master, Vol. the Second, 3rd ed., London. It was interpreted by Bernard Bentley in 1965 and published in The Fallibroome Collection, Vol. 2. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 231. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Playford writes:

Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice
The 2d Wo. cast off and go below the 3d Man, 1st Man at the same Time, follow her below the 3d. Wo. them both cast up and turn in the 2d Cu. Place First Man cast off and go below the 3d Wo. his Partner follow him at the same Time below the 3d Man, then cast up and turn First Cu. Figure thro' the 2d Cu. and change Places; 1st Man fall between the 3d Cu. and cast up above the 2d Man, his Partner at the same Time slip between the 2d cu. and cast off First Cu. Figure thro' the 3d Cu. and change Places, lead up a-breast with the 2d Cu. first Cu. cast off

Originally a triple minor.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), cast, lead, figure eight, siding (and probably others).

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=TheBeausRetreat

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1965 by Bernard Bentley. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.